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Lost amid demoted Daniel Bard's struggles is this equally unsettling reality for the Red Sox: Jon Lester hasn't been very ace-like.

Lester claims he has been pleased with his stuff, and he takes solace in his history as a notoriously slow starter who always has rebounded to post an ERA no higher than 3.47 over the past four seasons. But the fact remains that the Red Sox need him to be consistently better over the next four months than he's been over the past two.

Witness last night. Lester (Stuart Cahill photo, left) was far from horrible in allowing four runs (two earned) on eight hits (six singles) and one walk. But when the Red Sox needed him at three critical times, he didn't come through.

In the third inning, shortstop Mike Aviles dropped the ball on a fielder's choice. Lester retired the next batter before giving up back-to-back RBI singles to Adam Jones and Matt Wieters. In the sixth inning, the Red Sox had just tied the game at 2-2 when Lester allowed a leadoff double to Wieters, who went to third on a bunt single, then scored on a sacrifice fly. And after the Red Sox took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the sixth, Lester gave up a leadoff single to No. 9-hitting Endy Chavez before being lifted for reliever Scott Atchison. Chavez scored the tying run.

Three situations, three moments when Lester let the Red Sox down.

"Any time the guys come back and score some runs for me like that it's huge to get them back in the dugout, keep the momentum on our side," said Lester, who has an un-Lester-like 4.64 ERA in 12 starts. "You have to tip your hat to (the Orioles). Every time we scored, they came back and answered. I felt like I threw the ball well with the exception of two balls -- the triple in the first and I don't really know how Wieters hit that ball a foot outside (for the double). Other than that, they really weren't squared up. The balls that aren't squared up are finding gloves right now. That's part of baseball. I've just got to keep throwing, and hopefully it'll turn around for me."

The Red Sox are counting on it.

Meanwhile, in today's Herald ...

--Something we haven't seen often since April: The bullpen blew a game for the Red Sox.

--As he heads to the minors, Bard is dealing with something of an identity crisis.

--Generally speaking, Lester was pleased with his performance last night.